New Delhi – Two days after Anna Hazare skipped the much-hyped joint rally with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in the national capital, the social activist on Friday said that he supports the West Bengal Chief Minister but not her party.

While heaping praise on West Bengal Chief Minister, Anna said that he respects Mamata. “I think she is the best chief minister of the country,” he asserted.

Anna blamed his associate Santosh Bharatiya for the poor turnout at Ramila Maidan here at his joint rally with the TMC supremo.

Anna’s clarification comes after, the joint rally of him and Mamata in Delhi, seen as an attempt to pitchfork the West Bengal Chief Minister on the national stage, proved to be flop show with the Gandhian staying away and only a few hundred people turning up at the sprawling Ramlila Maidan.

Banerjee looked a forlorn figure on the stage where seating arrangements had been made only for her and Hazare, who only last month extended his support to her for the Lok Sabha election.

Reports had suggested that the social activist was reportedly not happy with the manner in which the rally was promoted. As per sources, the activist thought the rally had been publicised as a political event, and that people had been given the impression as to how the West Bengal Chief Minister had managed to get Anna for the rally.

Recently, Anna had endorsed Mamata for the PM’s post, saying she was the only leader in the country who had replied to his letter on 17-point agenda for the nation.